Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Trier, Germany & Its Roman Ruins

10/16/12
We left Luxembourg in the rain this morning & drove one hour to Trier, where the largest Roman structure outside of Rome & still intact stands. It's the Basilica with an arch in front of the altar that is 65 feet wide.

The wooden ceiling's squares are 10' x 10' & are 10' deep, but it's so far away from the floor, it's unbelievable that they could possibly be that big.

We also visited the Architectural Museum full of Roman artifacts. The mosaics were impressive. All the following pictures were made in Roman times using these tiny tiles. Really, the tiles are square & about the size of a pencil eraser. It must have taken forever to just make all the tiles, much less the pictures.

At the entrance to the museum, there was Bigfoot! Truly, a very big foot, & I have no idea why....

The old town of Trier feels like a charming large village with a market square & pedestrian only streets.

Even the McDonald's is in an old beautiful building, & we read that the city officials made McDonald's tone down their usual facade, & appears they did:

The Porta Nigra is a Roman gate that survived because it became a church in the Middle Ages. It is very impressive in its size both inside & out.

Another impressive structure we saw is the Dom Cathedral, built in the 1200's. Here are some pictures of it:

And these statues greet you at the door.

There are Roman baths in Trier too.

Besides all this, Trier also has a palace & beautiful gardens:

We did a lot of walking today, but we did take a lunch break at the Architectural Museum, & the pumpkin soup was as good as it looks.

Dave spotted this cigarette machine on the street that requires you swipe your id card to see if you're old enough to make a purchase:

The drive from Trier was tedious, windy, narrow wet roads. It was worth it, however, to get to Cochem, a small town on the Mosel River. We haven't had time to explore it yet, & rain's predicted for tomorrow. We hope to get out & around anyway. It has been really cold, so I actually bought a pair of gloves today in Trier. My hands were freezing.

I know this post has more pictures than words, but the setup in this hotel room isn't conducive to writing. There's no desk, so I'm hunched over a coffee table where the computer is, & it's not too comfortable. Maybe I'll figure out a better way by tomorrow. I'll leave you with some pictures of Cochem & our dinner tonight. It's right on the Mosel River, & I hope to inquire about visiting wineries around here. I'm wondering if that's caught on here like it has in California. I have had some good Reislings that aren't too sweet. They call Reislings sweet, medium or dry. Tonight I had a medium, & it was pretty good, just so different from California wines. Dana & I have done a little tasting research & haven't found a good inexpensive red German wine yet. Maybe the key word is inexpensive!

The river runs through town, dividing it. Our hotel, the am Hafen, is on one side, & the restaurant was on the other. We just walked across the bridge & back.

This is Dave's sausage/pork plate for dinner. Notice the gigantic pile of mashed potatoes which he didn't finish. That dark sausage is blood sausage---he just took a taste of it.

1 comment:

What an interesting blog, introduced by a thought-provoking photo. The unusual wall painting of the dwellings is also a strangely modern interpretation. Something like this hieroglyphic view of a park by Swiss painter Paul Klee, http://EN.WahooArt.com/A55A04/w.nsf/OPRA/BRUE-8LT475. The image can be seen at wahooart.com who can supply you with a canvas print of it.